Greening the HVAC System: A Logical Process

There is a mantra that has been generated in the imaginations of most folks who want to build or remodel a home with green guidelines. The mantra goes: “I want my green home to have geothermal heating, bamboo floors, and solar panels on the roof, if I can afford them!” This mantra tells me that the clients know very little about green building, and that I better start from the beginning when explaining green design concepts and processes, as I have been trying to do in the previous articles in this series. When it comes to greening your home for its heating and cooling needs, HVAC systems are no exception. Green building is not about putting a bunch of pieces that have been marketed as “green” together to form a green house. There is a green logic required, and at no point in the development of a green home is this more critical than when considering the HVAC system. I think it would be useful to highlight this logic as it relates to this topic. A valuable and logical consideration to start with is to design your green home’s envelope to be efficient. ...